This invention relates to the field of baseball gloves, and more particularly, to baseball catcher""s mitts that are designed to facilitate better control and ease of use by the catcher using the glove.
Baseball gloves and catcher""s mitts, are as old as the game itself. Yet many improvements have been made in baseball gloves over these many years as the game itself has become both quicker and harder to play due to technological advances in the construction of both baseballs and baseball bats, and also due to the higher level of fitness, strength and size of today""s baseball players. In order to keep up with these subtle, yet ever present, changes in the way the game is played, baseball gloves and catcher""s mitts have also needed to evolve.
Some obvious changes that have come to pass over the years in the design and construction of baseball gloves for professional baseball center around the change of design between a catcher""s mitt and the gloves worn by the rest of the players. As the game developed and became more popular and a realization of the specialty characteristics of the catcher position became more evident, the mitts for this position also adapted and changed more rapidly than for other positions. In particular, as most people know today, a catcher""s mitt is far different in shape, composition and purpose, than are the gloves of any of the other positions on the field because the catcher is usually required to field balls that are traveling at much higher velocities than are balls traveling to other positions on the field.
The subject invention is directed to a catcher""s mitt to be used in a high level of play; such as by high school, collegiate and/or professional players. In particular, the subject catcher""s mitt is designed to have less padding then the catcher""s mitts known to exist in the prior art, thereby reducing the protrusions and angles that cause a baseball to irregularly bounce off of the catching surface of the mitt, and so assist the catcher to field the baseball more cleanly, more often. Further, and in association with the reduced padding improvement, the subject invention has the further improvement of a double hinge assembly at a heel portion of the mitt. Such a double hinge assembly creates a more highly flexible catcher""s mitt, which facilitates a faster and stronger xe2x80x9ctrappingxe2x80x9d of the ball securely within the pocket of the mitt after it is caught by the catcher. Even further, the catcher""s mitt of the subject invention uses an advanced padding element, called a stress wedge hereinafter, that helps to cushion the impact of the ball against the softest part of a person""s hand; the web portion of a person""s hand located between the index finger and thumb. Finally, the catcher""s mitt of the subject invention incorporates extra finger hammocks; above and beyond the one finger hammock found in prior art mitts and gloves.
Over the years, other catcher""s mitts have been designed to reduce the padding along certain portions of the mitt. However, these prior art mitts have failed to fully develop this construction, and have, therefore, left more padding then is required. Further, over the years, other gloves/mitts have been designed to be more flexible, and whether they have achieved this result or not is not known (but is considered irrelevant), as their construction is significantly different than the construction of the subject baseball mitt invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,481, issued in 1982 to Latina, and is directed to a baseball mitt, and in particular a catcher""s mitt designed to be more flexible due to the positioning of a glove 11 secured to the back of the mitt body 5. Essentially, the ""481 patent discloses that glove 11 is oriented on the back of mitt 1, in such a way that the normal mechanical opening of a person""s hand is more directly aligned with the single hinge-line 31 of the mitt. The ""481 mitt also shows a reduced padding element extending along the periphery of the mitt, but on only one side of the webbing; i.e., on the finger portion side of the mitt, not on the thumb portion side. Accordingly, the ""481 patent differs from the subject invention in both the number of reduced padding elements and the number of hinge assemblies along the hinge of the mitt.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,245, issued in 1997 to Rector et al., for a flexible baseball glove. However, as with the above ""481 patent, it is seen in the ""245 patent that thinned out padding is only found on the finger side of the mitt and that the hinge at the heel is only a single hinge assembly, not a double hinge assembly like that of the subject invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,421, also issued in 1997, this time to Murai, for protecting covers for baseball mitts and gloves. The same single thin pad and single hinge assembly arguments are available to distinguish this patented devise over that of the subject invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,915, issued in 1989 to Keene, for a baseball glove with a flexible heel construction. Here also, while the ""915 patent discusses a more flexible glove, this is where the similarities to the subject invention end. The ""915 patent specifically discusses achieving a flexibility in the heel portion of the glove for use by children and young adults, while also discussing a single hinge-line 59 for the glove.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,641, issued in 1997 to Doi et. al., for a flexing baseball glove. The ""641 patent shows the cooperation between a hole 8 located along the hinge-line of the glove and the extension portion 4, to allow for the increased flexibility of the glove. The subject invention has no such hole or extension portion to assist in its flexibility.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,611, issued in 1991 to Maye, for a protective padding device for baseball players"" hands. While the Maye pad invention acts to protect the same area of the ball player""s hand as the stress wedge of the subject invention, it is distinguishable from the subject invention in its manner of construction and application to the mitt/hand of the user.
It would be desirable to achieve a less obstructed catching surface for a catcher""s mitt by reducing even further than the prior art, the padding immediately adjacent to the web portion of the mitt, while it would also be desirable to achieve more flexibility in a catcher""s mitt at the heel portion thereof, so as to better assist the user of the mitt in closing the mitt around a caught baseball. It would also be desirable to have increased padding to protect the web portion of a person""s hand between the index finger and the thumb, without the need of having to keep track of a separate, glove-like, pad to be worn over the person""s hand. Finally, it would also be desirable for a catcher""s mitt to use additional finger hammocks, in order to assist the player in the positioning of his fingers away from the front, impact surface of the mitt.
In accordance with the invention, an improved baseball catcher""s mitt is provided. The mitt comprises front and back shells, joined together both along the periphery of the shells and selectively at internal portions of the mitt, and a web-type panel extending from the front and back shells, and being joined to the front and back shells along select portions of the panel and the shells. The web-type panel and a substantially centrally located portion of the front shell define a baseball receiving pocket. The mitt has at least one padding member disposed internally, between the front and back shells. The formation of the shells and the padding member create four peripheral, padding zones. Two of these peripheral padding zones closest to, and on either side of, the web-type panel, are greater in thickness then the thickness of the mitt at the pocket, but are smaller in thickness then a thickness of the other two peripheral padding zones that extend down toward the heel of the mitt. The mitt further has a double-hinge assembly at the heel of the mitt, for facilitating easier folding of the glove around a baseball received into the pocket. The mitt also has at least one extra finger hammock, for securing at least two fingers, and a thumb, of the user of the mitt, away from the front, catching surface of the mitt. In addition, the mitt has a stress wedge located so as to protect the soft web portion of a user""s hand, located between the index finger and thumb of the user""s hand.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved baseball catcher""s mitt.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved baseball catcher""s mitt that has less padding along its periphery, to either side of the web-type panel, in order to reduce the large lumps and bulges of the contour of the mitt""s periphery, and thereby reduce the likelihood of a ball deflecting out of the mitt on impact.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide an improved baseball catcher""s mitt that is more flexible in its use.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an improved baseball catcher""s mitt having extra finger hammocks.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide an improved baseball catcher""s mitt having two hinge assemblies along the heel of the glove, instead of the normally found single hinge assembly.
Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the following description.
The invention accordingly comprises assemblies possessing the features, properties and the relation of components which will be exemplified in the products hereinafter described, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.